


Shuffle of Confusion

by angelskuuipo



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, GFY, Introspection, Spoilers for ep 3.15 (Nanda Parbat)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 20:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3502229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelskuuipo/pseuds/angelskuuipo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was still dark out, so she wasn’t exactly doing a Walk of Shame, but it sure as hell wasn’t a Stride of Pride either.  Shuffle of Confusion, maybe?  Stagger of Weariness?  She honestly didn’t know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shuffle of Confusion

**Author's Note:**

> Discliamer: Not mine, never have been, never will be…damn it.
> 
> I had more feels. I’m sure this will be Jossed fairly quickly, but this is how I’d like it to go. Big thanks to Elisabeth for the beta.
> 
> Written: March 6, 2015  
> Word Count: 690

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Felicity woke up in a bed that was not hers.

Alone.

And naked.

She blinked a few times as her brain came online and then she jolted upright, clutching the sheet to her chest.

Her.

Ray.

Towel.

Angry at Oliver. (She was so angry, has been for what seems like forever. When was it going to stop hurting?)

Science blackout. (She got it, though. Ray felt helpless and angry; kept asking himself why couldn’t he save her? He’d convinced himself that he had to make it right; he had to make sure it wouldn’t happen to anyone else. It was a noble endeavor, but ultimately impossible. Just look at Team Arrow’s track record.)

Felicity dropped her head into her hands and groaned. Apparently she had a type and that type was driven, self-sacrificing, socially conscious, focused to the exclusion of all else multi-billionaires (well, former on that last one in Oliver’s case).

No one ever said Felicity Smoak didn’t aim high.

She ran her hands through her hair as she listened for Ray, but the apartment felt empty. The shower wasn’t running and there was no scent of coffee or food. Maybe he was back in his workshop?

She slipped out of bed and, forgoing her underwear, slipped her dress back on. She checked the apartment and found it indeed empty. Then she looked for a note, but didn’t find one.

That…didn’t bode well.

This certainly wasn’t the morning after she’d been hoping for.

Wait, what? She wasn’t sure she even wanted the night before let alone a morning after. Okay, yeah, the sex was good. It was actually really good, but that was just the physical. Emotionally, well, she might as well have been using a new vibrator.

Oh. Well, she pretty much just answered her unasked question of what happened next. There wouldn’t be a repeat. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Ray was still clinging to his memory of Anna and, as much as Felicity didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t ready to let Oliver go either.

What a fine mess this all was.

She shook herself out of her reverie and gathered the rest of her things. She debated leaving a note, but didn’t. Maybe it was petty, but there it was. Tit for tat. Besides, it wasn’t like Ray wouldn’t track her down later.

That thought was kind of creepy, actually.

Felicity looked around one more time and then let herself out of Ray’s apartment. It was still dark out, so she wasn’t exactly doing a Walk of Shame, but it sure as hell wasn’t a Stride of Pride either. Shuffle of Confusion, maybe? Stagger of Weariness? She honestly didn’t know.

If Oliver didn’t get his noble ass killed for real this time they were going to have a long talk when he got back. Something had to change.

As for her and Ray? That was a mistake, pure and simple; a moment of solace, of comfort between friends, but ultimately it was empty. 

When had her life gotten so complicated?

Oh right. When Oliver Queen turned up in the back seat of her car, bleeding from a gunshot wound and asked for her help. Well, no, it actually started when he showed up in her office with a bullet-riddled laptop and a truly pitiful cover story.

As Felicity drove home she wondered if she would change anything if she could go back. While there were a few things she wished she could (Tommy, Sara, the entire mess they were in right now), she still would have helped. She was doing good in the world and she didn’t want to give that up. There were surely less dangerous ways of affecting change, but she was pretty sure they wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying.

It was all tangled up and, if she ever wanted to feel something close to normal again, she really needed to start working out the knot. That meant taking the time to really think about things instead of pushing them aside and waiting for ‘later’. Later was just an excuse.

God, being an adult sucked.

At least there was coffee.

-30-


End file.
